


Mad Prince Rulf: Playing with Sadism

by sglottalk



Series: Crown Prince Rulf [3]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 14:45:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6083484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sglottalk/pseuds/sglottalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emperor Gregor learns that his son, Crown Prince Rulf, might be assaulting a young woman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mad Prince Rulf: Playing with Sadism

Three years after Crown Prince Rulf had made his first public offering to Emperor Yuri, whenever he was not acquiring or using recreational drugs, or doing historical research (with a particular emphasis on Emperor Yuri), he pursued scandalous activities. Just when it seemed that gossipers might get weary of his antics, he found some entirely novel way to shock the public. Emperor Gregor knew that his son had made monetary deals with some of the tabloids to fund his drug-using habits, but even after he quashed them, Rulf showed no less zeal in creating raw material for them to report.

Emperor Gregor sent Rulf to therapy multiple times, and the therapy sessions never got far.

Laisa continued to spend time with Rulf, but Gregor cut off all personal contact. It was too painful to watch his son become more and more like what he imagined his own father, Crown Prince Serg, had been like.

However, Rulf had yet to cross certain lines. Though some of his drug deals fell within the gray zones of civil law, he had yet to do anything which would be a matter for criminal law. 

And Rulf was so thoroughly unpopular among the general staff, ministers, and the counts - with the exception of a few counts, such as Count Vorrutyer, who found him amusing - that it would be extremely difficult for him to organize any kind of effective conspiracy. There was even a faction, led by Count Vorkosigan, which said that Rulf should cease to be Gregor's heir and be disinherited of his title of Prince. The fact that Rulf had so little political influence limited how much political damage he could do.

It was because Rulf had not crossed these lines that Emperor Gregor did not take more drastic action. And if he disinherited Rulf, he would have to make one of his other sons Crown Prince. He had no choice about Rulf becoming Crown Prince at birth, but he wanted to delay doing that to any of his other sons if he could.

One day, Emperor Gregor received an urgent message from ImpSec on his comconsole.

"Sire," said the ImpSec agent. "Prince Rulf is in inner courtyard of Vorob'yev House. He is there with Maya Vorob'yev. It seems that he is ... she is screaming ..." the look of horror on Emperor Gregor's face was not helping him speak "... it looks like he is taking advantage of her."

"I left very clear orders that if the prince did any such thing ImpSec was to stop him immediately."

"We tried, but the Vorob'yev armsmen only granted us limited access, only permitted us to observe, and they would not let our people get into the courtyard."

"I am giving an imperial order that Maya Vorob'yev should be rescued now, and you will pass that order on to the Vorob'yev armsmen. And then you will arrest the prince and take him into custody within ImpSec headquarters immediately."

"Yes, sire."

Gregor felt like the world had frozen over him.

***

Gregor reviewed what ImpSec knew about Rulf's relationship with Maya Vorob'yev. Maya was the daughter of Lord Vorob'yev and his Vervani wife. She had been infatuated with Rulf for at least a month. About two weeks earlier, Rulf and Maya had had sex for the first time, which seemed to have been a consensual encounter. A few days later, Rulf and Maya had had a long conversation. Since Rulf used a cone of silence, the subject of the conversation was unknown, but Rulf had seemed very relaxed while Maya had become distressed and eventually broke down in tears. They had not communicated with each other until about another week later, in another conversation they had under a cone of silence. They arranged for a meeting at Vorob'yev House ... today. Maya had given specific instructions to the Vorob'yev armsmen not to disturb her meeting with Rulf unless it was a dire emergency, which is why they had been so reluctant to intervene.

Gregor came to meet with Maya, to offer an apology in person, to arrange therapy for her, and to assure her that Rulf would never be able to touch her again. When he saw her, it was obvious that she had been in tears for a while.

"Sire!" she called out. "Where is Prince Rulf?"

"He is ImpSec custody."

"What! Release him!"

"Maya Vorob'yev, you have no need to fear him anymore. I will see to it that you are safe."

"But he's never been any danger to me!"

This was not the response Gregor expected.

"I want to make this very clear. If he is blackmailing you, or if he has..."

"Sire, _he never raped me_. He is _innocent_."

Gregor paused. "What did happen?"

"He was just pretending to rape me. It was a scene. He wanted to see if he liked sadism. I told the armsmen about it beforehand so that we wouldn't be interrupted. We had a safe word, and I never used it, because I didn't want him to stop. Please, sire, you have to believe me!"

Gregor wanted to believe her. But ... in a case like this, he had to be _sure_.

"If you say all of that under fast-penta, I will believe you, and I will release my son."

"Yes, anything so you'll believe me." Then Maya paused, and had a second thought. "But please only ask about what happened today. He's told me some very personal things about himself, and I don't think it would be right for me to tell anyone else."

"When did he tell you those things?"

"About a week and a half ago."

"ImpSec tells me that during that conversation, you broke down in tears, while Rulf remained relaxed."

"He was only relaxed because he was under the influence of fast-penta!"

Gregor definitely did not expect this twist.

"Sire, he put himself under fast-penta, it wasn't me at all, I didn't even realize at first that he was under fast-penta, and by the time I did, it was too late ... please don't ask me about the things he said then."

"Very well," said Gregor. "I will only ask you about what happened today, and I will not ask you about what my son had said a week and a half ago. My word as a Vorbarra."

Maya looked relieved. "Thank you sire, oh thank you!"

***

The fast-penta interrogation confirmed what Maya had already said: it had been a pre-planned and consensual sado-masochism scene.

After the antagonist was administered, Maya said "So, you're going to release Prince Rulf now, right?"

"I want to ask him a few questions, but after that, yes, I will release him," Gregor replied.

"Sire, maybe you could send him to Vervain for a holiday."

Gregor raised his eyebrow. "And why do you suggest that?"

Maya looked like she already regretted her words. "Forgive me, sire, I said too much."

Gregor went to ImpSec headquarters, and insisted on putting Prince Rulf through a fast-penta interrogation as well. Once again, Maya's story was confirmed: it had been a pre-planned and consensual sado-masochism scene.

Gregor then asked, "Has Maya ever been with you when you were under the influence of fast-penta?"

"Yes," Rulf replied.

"When?"

"About a week and a half ago."

"Who administered the fast-penta?"

"I administered it to myself."

Gregor was very, very tempted to press further. Why had Rulf administered fast-penta to himself? What had he said to Maya that made her break down in tears? What was the meaning behind Maya's cryptic suggestion that Rulf should visit Vervain?

Why did Rulf want to experiment with sadism?

But, by now, there was no doubt that, in this instance, Rulf was innocent and falsely accused. Gregor felt it would be wrong to invade the privacy of his son's mind any more.

"You may apply the antagonist."

Once Rulf was clear from the effects of fast-penta, Gregor said, "I apologize. You did not hurt Maya Vorob'yev in the courtyard, and you did not deserve to be held in custody."

Rulf's reply was "Yeah, whatever."

Now that Rulf was no longer under the influence, Gregor decided it was okay for him to ask. "Would you like to explain why you want to play with sadism?"

"Nope."

"Do you wish to emulate ... Emperor Yuri?"

"WHAT!" Rulf exclaimed. "Emperor Yuri did torture people. But he never _raped_ anybody. And he never tortured anybody for fun. Even you cannot claim he was a sadist."

Gregor had so long assumed that Emperor Yuri and his own father's madness came from a common source that he also assumed that they had committed the same crimes and yet ... he could not argue with what his son had just said.

"You are free to leave," he said.

"Are you sure you want to let me go?" Rulf asked. "Speaking of sadists, if I'm free I might, I don't know, speak before everybody at your official birthday celebration and explain why great-grandfather Ezar sent grandfather Serg to fight at Escobar."

"Rulf," Gregor said. "I have much bigger things to worry about that you spouting nonsense about Escobar in public. Just leave."

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this from Rulf's POV, but I then decided it was better with Gregor's POV. That said, I think it's good I started with writing Rulf's POV since it let me work out what had happened between Rulf and Maya.


End file.
